On arrow on a bench can improve the trip of thousands

Or the importance of explaining the obvious

Author

Diogo Matos
November 15, 2023

You can still find 50 year old trains being used in Portugal. And despite being old, they have an amazing design feature: adjustable carriage seats.

You can grab the handle of the seat and rotate it, so that you can be facing other people or choose to have a bit more privacy. See the pictures below for detail:

These are single seats: 2 seats, next to each other, facing the back of the seat in front of them.

These are group seats: 4 seats, people facing each other.

In these old trains you can choose the layout you want, depending if you’re with a group or not!

The problem is that no one knows this, because they don’t point it out. This is what the handle looks like:

Grab and rotate the seat to change the layout.

It doesn’t have any indication that you can rotate it!

Adding a simple arrow, like ↔️, would let commuters know they can move the bench. Simple design choices make a big difference.

💡 Exercise for you: your product is intuitive for you. But is it for your users? Sit down with them and watch them use the product. Were do they struggle? How can you clarify that?